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When Eckert and Mauchly wrote their proposal for building ENIAC to the US Army their estimate was $50,000 but the Army wanted another estimate. Vannevar Bush, the creator of MIT's analog Differential Analyzer, examined the proposal at the request of the Army and decided it would take $500,000 to build (the same amount it took to build the Differential Analyzer).

When ENIAC was finished in November 1945 $500,000 had been spent building it.

However ENIAC had repeated modifications and upgrades over the years that it was used, increasing the costs well above that (e.g. Function Table ROM stored program, 100 words of magnetic core memory, high speed shifter).

Eckert and Mauchly continued to make cost estimate errors of similar magnitude (factor of 10 too low) on later computer designs they worked on (e.g. BINAC, UNIVAC i) and were only saved when Remington bought Eckert Mauchly Computer Company and did their own cost estimates.

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How much did ENIAC cost?

Roughly $500,000.


How much ENIAC cost?

Roughly $500,000.


How much did it cost to build ENIAC?

it originally cost $500,000, and was government funded. Check below for more information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eniac


How much was the eniac computer sold?

ENIAC was never sold, it was built to order on a cost plus wartime Army contract. The original estimated cost to build ENIAC in the contract was roughly $50,000, however by the time it was finished the final cost was over $500,000. About a year after completion, ENIAC was dissembled and shipped to the BRL Aberdeen where it was used for about a decade. The Army owned it from the day the contract was signed until it was retired.


How much energy did the eniac use?

The ENIAC used 160 kilowatts (160,000 watts).


What did Vannevar invent?

Vanevar Bush designed an electromechanical analog computer called the Differential Analyzer. Bush's machine cost about $500,000 to build. Much of the ENIAC architecture and programming system was derived from the Differential Analyzer, except ENIAC was all electronic and all digital. In Eckert and Mauchley's ENIAC proposal to the Army they estimated the cost to build at about $50,000. The Army took the proposal to Bush for evaluation, as he had the most experience with computing machines on this scale (even though his was analog and ENIAC was digital). Bush estimated cost to build at about $500,000... he was right! Vanevar Bush also had a lot to do with advising on ICBM development and the Space Program later.


11 What was ENIAC?

what was eniac?


How much did the first computer cost and who created it?

Eckert and Mauchly, in their original ENIAC proposal estimated the total cost at about $50,000. When the proposal was shown to Vanevar Bush (designer of the analog Differential Analyzer) he estimated total cost at about $500,000. Bush was right.


How much floor did the ENIAC take up?

1,000 square feet


How much does a ENIAC weigh?

i don't know go ask Albert Einstein


How much do the ENIAC wires weigh?

The ENIAC, while not all the information is available, had about 70,000 resistors, which are small electronic components. Considering their size and standard weight, the total weight of all the wires in the ENIAC is estimated to be around 7-8 tons.


What was the price of the eniac computer?

Roughly a half million dollars, which was about 10 times what Eckert and Machley thought it would be but very close to what Vanivar Bush thought it would be.